Rich McNelley

As a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and later the U.S. Army, Rich has an exceptional discipline, accountability and “can do” spirit that he brings to his practice of law. Some attorneys say they are always on call, but Rich really means it. He has driven to meet vessels involved in casualties in the middle of the night, he has taken client calls from the beach in St. Barth’s and he regularly visits with clients and provides his opinion on any question they have, even if he isn’t currently involved in that specific matter.

As a member of the Commercial Litigation Service Group, Rich represents clients in litigation arising out of marine and transportation accidents.

In one of his most memorable cases, Rich represented a Marine transportation client who lost a number of barges as its vessel was attempting to navigate past a dam on an Illinois river. The barges damaged the dam and the town near the river flooded resulting in hundreds of claimants in the limitation action, including the United States of America and hundreds of property owners in the town that flooded. While some claims were settled, others were tried, including claims of more than 100 property owners, totaling in the tens of millions of dollars. The judge ruled that the incident was 100% the fault of the dam operator, an employee of the United States, and exonerated Rich’s client.

When Rich isn’t practicing law you can find him spending time with his three daughters, biking, running, or kickboxing.